Rotary conveyors of the type with which the present invention is particularly adapted for use include a plurality of plate-like teeth or tines mounted to a rotor shaft in axially spaced, diametrically opposite pairs. Located between adjacent pairs of the teeth is a stationary, curved stripper or lifter, with adjacent strippers sandwiching a given pair of teeth and acting to strip or lift crop material from the curved leading edge or surface of the tines.
The current state of the art stripper is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,526,736 issued 04 Mar. 2003. This stripper is comprised of two separate halves, hinged together by interlocking teeth. The two halves, when together, encompass a rotor shaft of the baler. The distance the halves can be pulled apart while hinged is limited, which hinders the assembly of the strippers around the rotor shaft. Also, the current design requires the two halves to be matched and pre-assembled at the vendor. The cost of the two-piece design, which includes manufacturing costs for de-molding and clean-up, as well as assembly costs, is high. Further, once the baler is in use, the strippers may see large loads due to crop wrapping around the rotor shaft. This causes deformation of the hinge area, which results in decreased effectiveness of the stripper.